captain vs helm

captain

noun
  • A chief or leader. 

  • An honorific title given to a prominent person. See colonel. 

  • The head boy of a school. 

  • A maître d', a headwaiter. 

  • An army officer with a rank between the most senior grade of lieutenant and major. 

  • A naval officer with a rank between commander and commodore. 

  • The person lawfully in command of a ship or other vessel. 

  • One of the athletes on a sports team who is designated to make decisions, and is allowed to speak for his team with a referee or official. 

  • A commissioned officer in the United States Navy, Coast Guard, NOAA Corps, or PHS Corps of a grade superior to a commander and junior to a rear admiral (lower half). A captain is equal in grade or rank to a United States Army, Marine Corps, or Air Force colonel. 

  • The leader of a group of workers. 

verb
  • To act as captain 

  • To exercise command of a ship, aircraft or sports team. 

helm

noun
  • A position of control or leadership. 

  • Something used to control or steer; also (obsolete), a handle of a tool or weapon; a haft, a helve. 

  • The tiller (or, in a large ship, the wheel) which is used to control the rudder of a marine vessel; also, the entire steering apparatus of a vessel. 

  • One in the position of controlling or directing; a controller, a director, a guide. 

  • A heavy cloud lying on the brow of a mountain, especially one associated with a storm. 

  • Synonym of helmet (“the feature above a shield on a coat of arms”) 

  • A shelter for cattle or other farm animals; a hemmel, a shed. 

  • A stalk of corn, or (uncountable) stalks of corn collectively (that is, straw), especially when bundled together or laid out straight to be used for thatching roofs. 

  • The member of a vessel's crew in charge of steering the vessel; a helmsman or helmswoman. 

  • The use of a helm (sense 1); also, the amount of space through which a helm is turned. 

verb
  • To control the helm (noun sense 1) of (a marine vessel); to be in charge of steering (a vessel). 

  • To lay out (stalks of corn, or straw) straight to be used for thatching roofs; to yelm. 

  • To direct or lead (a project, etc.); to manage (an organization). 

How often have the words captain and helm occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )